First Place Pro - DynastyFirst
Place Semi-Pro - SA X-Factor
First Place D-I - Rock-It Kids
First Place D-II - SCP Epic
First Place D-III - FYT

While early to mid summer has
traditionally seen some of the NPPL's largest tournaments –
historically in Chicago, turnout in Massachusets hasn't always been as
big.

This year's NPPL Super 7 Boston
tournament drew out 152 teams. While that number was only half of the
2007 Huntington Beach attendance, it shows tremendous growth when one
considers that the first NPPL Boston tournament, held in 1999 consisted
of a mere 38 ten-man teams, only eight of which were pro.

Eight years later, pro level
tournament paintball came back to Boston with the NPPL Super 7, and it
returned again this summer with the pro division in full effect, all 18
teams vying for the series title.

Division III through Semi-Pro
teams started their games early Friday morning, while the pros would
not begin until the weekend.

Division III through Semi-Pro
teams started their games early Friday morning, while the pros would
not begin until the weekend. And that's when the battle would commence.
Oakland Blast took first place at Huntington Beach, and Dynasty grabbed
the trophy in Tampa, putting themselves in the series lead. Their
finish in Boston could cement or destroy that step forward in the path
toward their fifth consecutive super 7 championship.

Announced the month before the
tournament, a new deal meant that professional paintball competitions
would once again be returning to national television, but with a twist.
Rather than being a tournament sports show, a new show will be produced
as a docu-drama, following key paintball players through their lives,
and showcasing parts of the industry and world-wide expansion of the
sport. Scheduled to air on Fox Sports Net starting in October 2007, the
show also meant that Fox Sports Net would also be sharing video access
of the Boston center-court with the nppllive.com webcast only. DVD and
webcast producers who were previously able to purchase field access
video passes for about $1,500 per camera would now find the pro action
on center court to be a “closed set.”

Friday and Saturday, the eight
games each team played in the preliminary round determined who would
play on Sunday and who would go home. In Division III, the modern
equivalent of Rookie, 54 team we culled down to the 16 that would play
the sweet sixteen knock-out round. NYC Revolution led the pack, though
no teams played the round without tasting at least one defeat. Riptide
Kidz took the 16th slot, edging out Noobies with a narrow 4-point lead.

Splat Kids was the top ranked
Division II team, and the only one to make it through the prelims
undefeated. There, Method-X went to the bottom slot in the Sweet 16,
bumping Proving Grounds Factory by 4 points. Division I, with only 20
teams, only advanced 8 teams out of the prelims – TCP Machine, Stones
Assassins, Miamy Devious, Rock-It Kids, HK by pbfashion, Tombstone,
Dynasty Entourage, and Naughty by Nature.

The twenty-one teams in the
Semi-Pro division were, competing to be the top ranked at the end of
the season and advance to the pros. Only 8 teams survived the prelims,
to go straight to quarterfinals. A-Team finished in the first position,
losing one game, followed by SD Aftermath, Evolution, OC Bushwackers,
Boston Paintball, SA X-Factor, Tx Justice League and Redz Infamy.

The pro teams, who didn't start
playing until Saturday ran in two groups of 9, allowing for eight games
each, but no play between the two groups. The top four teams in each
group advanced as Sunday's quarterfinalists. In Group one, these teams
were the Portland Naughty Dogs, Los Angeles Infamous, Stockholm Joy
Division, and San Diego Dynasty. Advancing from group 2 were Edmonton
Impact, Pittsburgh All-Americans, Ironmen and the Jacksonville Raiders.

The
pro teams, who didn't start playing
until Saturday ran in two groups of 9, allowing for eight games each,
but no play between the two groups. The top four teams in each group
advanced as Sunday's quarterfinalists. In Group one, these teams
were the Portland Naughty Dogs, Los Angeles Infamous, Stockholm Joy
Division, and San Diego Dynasty. Advancing from group 2 were
Edmonton Impact, Pittsburgh All-Americans, Ironmen and the
Jacksonville Raiders.

In the sweet sixteen round played by
D-III and D-II teams, the teams were paired, weakest against the
strongest, to play best two out of three, loser go home. This round
eliminated half of the teams, and had some surprises, like D-II 16th
ranked Riptide Kidz knocking out first ranked NYC Revolution.

The
divisional Elite 8 round, which
replaces the quarterfinal system, and forms the next tier of the
single elimination finals structure, saw 8 teams paired weakest
against the strongest – win or go home in the best two out of three
games. In contrast, the Pro Elite 8 offered much more opportunity to
watch professional paintball. The eight teams were scheduled in a
round robin format, just like the prelims, each team playing all the
remaining teams in the division, for a total of seven games.

Ranked
by total score at the end of the
round, the top four pro teams moved on to the semifinals. These were
San Diego Dynasty, Los Angeles Infamous, Stockholm Joy Division, and
the Pittsburgh All Americans. Knocked out by the round were Edmonton
Impact, Portland Naughty Dogs, Ironmen and Jacksonville Raiders.

Like
the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, the
semifinals pited two teams together in the best two out of three
games. While the winners went on to fight for first and second in
the finals, the losing teams weren't completely knocked out – they
were able to play each other in the finals as a second-chance round,
to compete for third and fourth place.

In
Division III FYT took down Storm
Riders two games in a row, and Air Assault Factory tied with Team
RNT, then won a game, then lost a game. RNT won the tie breaker, and
went on to play FYT for first and second. FYT came out the victor
there with back to back wins. In the second chance match-up, Air
Assault Factory won twice in a row for third place.

Division
II saw Splat Kidz drop their
first game to NeX, win the next, then lose the third, while SCP Epic
beat STD Factory in two straight games. In the battle for third
match, the Kidz beat STD twice in a row securing third place. Fighting
for first, SCP Epic beat NeX two games running and took the
trophy.

In
D-I Miami Devious won their first
game, but Naughty by Nature turned it around, taking the next two.
Rock-It Kids took down Dynasty Entourage in their first game, but
dropped the next. They won the third to move on. Entourage took out
Devious twice in a row for third place before Rock-It Kids finished
first place with double wins over Naughty by Nature.

Moving
up to Semi-Pro, SD Aftermath
took out Redz Infamy with back to back wins, and Boston Paintball
lost their first game to SA X-Factor, had a draw for the second, but
lost the third. Boston finished third with a win, loss, win against
Infamy. In the final round, SD Aftermath dropped their first game
against SA X-Factor, and the second game was a draw. The third went
to SA X-Factor, along with a first place finish.

Both
in the stands, and with thousands
of viewers watching via the league's live webcast, the big show was
in the pro semifinals and finals. Dynasty defeated the All Americans
with a win, draw and a win. Joy Division, the only European team to
have a Super-7 tournament win to their credit, beat Infamous in their
first game, but fell the next two. In the battle for third,
Stockholm Joy Division posted double wins over the Pittsburgh All
Americans. The big focus was on the finals. In the first game, San
Diego Dynasty tied with Los Angeles Infamous. The second game went
to Dynasty. A win in the third game would give Dynasty first place –
so would a draw. Infamous' only hope at this point was a win, which
would send the two teams into a tie-breaker round with a series of
one-on-one games. Both teams started out conservatively, getting all
of their players safely into their bunkers and going for nearly a
minute with no losses, and little secondary movement. Because of
their single win, Dynasty was in a position to play more
conservatively, they didn't need to win, they just had to not lose.
Infamous put a player in the far side snake first, matched moments
later by Todd Martinez moving safely into the other end. Infamous'
John Richardson moved to a near by stand-up spike, in a position to
fire on the far end of the snake, but was kept in check by fire from
Dynasty's Brian Cole in a diagonal position. Dynasty dug in and
camped like they were in Yosemite. It wasn't long before Inamous, in
serious need of the opposing flag ramped up their offense, and
started losing players to Dynasty's defensive positions. Before the
clock ran out, Infamous' players were in the dead box, and Dynasty
had hung the flag.

For
Dynasty, the win was an important
part of their fight to remain the only team to ever win an NPPL
Super-7 series championship, a feat they have achieved every year
since the series began in 2003. With a rough start to the year,
finishing third place in Huntington Beach, Dynasty's Tampa win put
them on top towards the title – but just barely. Only one point
behind them was Edmonton Impact, which had finished in second place
at both tournaments. As Dynasty's 2006 record could attest,
consistently finishing in the finals can be more important than just
winning a tournament when it comes to the series. In Boston, neither
Impact, or third Ranked Ironmen made the finals. Fourth ranked
Infamous' second place finish would bump them up to a total of 55
series points, but that was a far cry from Dynasty's new total of 73
– a lead that would let them sleep more easily at night, getting
ready for the two remaining NPPL tournaments – Kansas City and the
Commander's Cup.